I’ve collected a bunch of Carolina Laurel Cherry (Prunus caroliniana) seedlings and planted them as a formal hedge. Still in the shaping process but they look good. Broadleaf evergreen native to the South with good clay tolerance and deer resistance. A little invasive due to the cherries being consumed by birds.
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Arborvitae is a term for cultivated White Cedar. Around here they are deer candy, no greenery survives winter below 5.5’. I had native wild -type white cedar that were eaten like this too.
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Oh another good one is loquats, tropical almost magnolia like leaves, hardy down to -10(or sometimes more) - evergreen, and on a right timing winter you may get fruit!
Around here actually “white cedar” is more likely to refer to Chamaecyparis thyroides, which is a “false cypress” like Hinoki cypress and isn’t a Thuja like northern white cypress/arborvitae. Still gets eaten by deer though, so your point still stands.
Wanted to mention this but deer like them in my painful, frustrating experience.
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Yeah, that’s what the ones around here tend to look like.
There is also sweetbay magnolia, which should be evergreen for you.
White cedar/arbor vitae here is deer candy. I planted 1000 of them over a decade ago. I can find maybe a dozen today. All of those are browsed up to at least 5’. I’ll never plant another
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Sweetbay magnolia can be evergreen or deciduous depending on which population they’re from though.
Redbay does come to mind though now that you mention sweetbay. It would be hardy in TN.
Aye.
This is the patch of woods out my front door. You can observe the 6-7’ browse line. All our woods look like this in the immediate area. White cedar are truly a wonderful native, and I’m sorry to observe their extirpation at the hand of DNR management. When I plant them in the woods I plant a clump of three. Then I give them 15’ circumference wrapped cattle wire (not welded wire). I affix this to three 6 ft T-post stakes. That keeps those demons from biting back the growing tip at least. In 30 years maybe I can remove the cages.
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Horrible. If an invasive species was doing this there’d probably be a state or federal level eradication program.
We need to reintroduce cougars, no joke.
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Deer feed heavily on white cedar here in Michigan, leaving them branch less below 6 feet.
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Yep, you’ve got too many deer for the habitat.
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Dunno how they’d fare in your region or soil type, but I’m in CA 9b, and have several evergreens located outside the property fence line, that the deer have full access to but don’t touch. I also don’t really water these plants either and they survive our hot summers fine. They are: American holly, feijoa/pineapple guava, arbutus/strawberry tree, red-tip photinia, and oleander. We also have camellia that do well as evergreen screens but they’re not in an area where deer would be browsing, so dunno about deer resistance.
Green Giant checks most of your boxes except for the 20 tall part. They can grow to 60 feet.
You could top them off at 20 feet every 5 years. 
Emerald Green would be a better call since it’s not as huge, but regardless they’re both arborvitae so the deer are probably just going to eat them.
well i guess we dont have deer like you guys do or theres something they prefer to eat thats better. our w. cedar grow right to the ground. deer / moose actually yard in cedar swamps over winter as it protects them from the worse of the cold winds, moving back out to the hardwoods once the snow goes. ive tracked deer into the cedars in late season. its so thick they usually bust you before you see them. its like a maze in there.
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I second the little gem idea. Magnolias grow beautifully around me and on my property in crap clay. But, personally, I don’t like monoculture.
Deer eat thujas here in the heavier trafficked areas. All the houses with them as “privacy screens” are weird skinny for the bottom 5-6’ and then bigger on top. Looks horrible.
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I did pineapple guava and rosemary at my sons house, with a row of pomegranate on a different side and a row of citrus along the road. Two years in and the deer haven’t touched any of them. They sleep in the field and gorge themselves on fruit in season from his orchard, deer are thick as flies on a cow patty here but he kind of likes them (psycho child) and doesn’t want to fence them out.
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That is crazy. I wonder if the cedars that grow around you are less palatable, or if it really is just the pressure. Yeppers, growing trees around here is a not a battle; it’s a full out war. We are starting to win it, but it’s not been easy with the hundreds of trees we have planted on our two properties over the last 10 years. Once the main growing tip is above 7’ I don’t care if the deer clean the bottom branches. I have seen deer browse white spruce in really rough years around here. The old timers say a deer browsing spruce is a dead deer walking, it has already started to death. I guess it’s like the old stories of explorers being reduced to eating leather. I haven’t ever noticed them browsing black spruce, but that may be because it’s in the swamps. Red spruce doesn’t grow wild in Michigan, but I believe it does where you are?
You are on the right track, here’s a nudge: Illicium parviflorum (Hardy Yellow Anise)
https://www.siteone.com/en/67466b-illicium-parviflorum-hardy-yellow-anise/p/574486
I found that the key is to pick out pots at the plant nursery yourself. Select ones that have two stems growing in them. When you de-pot, knock off all of the soil and you will be able to detangle the roots and end up with two separate plants for the price of one (they are propagated from cuttings and oftentimes both stems will survive the growing process).
I am growing these myself and have been telling customers about them for years. Loropetalum used to be on my list (and still is for areas where you want to keep people out) but anise shrub is now my favorite. The pleasant scent released when leaves are trimmed is an added bonus. Oh, and I feel that they are very affordable to purchase.
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